If something terrible happens at your job, you might file a TPS report later than your boss would like or maybe people on the internet would run out of things to read. If something terrible happens at a bomb tech's job, they might get exploded. A tragedy if it's a human being. But if it's a robot? A small lump sum… »1/06/12 6:00pm 1/06/12 6:00pm

Robots can't have feelings. But humans develop feelings for them. You know, like R2-D2 in Star Wars. Or like Scooby Doo, a real life small robot that saved the day 19 times. This is his single-tear story. »12/28/11 2:00pm 12/28/11 2:00pm

Like the prologue of any robopocalypse movie where the machines rise up to destroy us, most of the robots we hear about do things we could do, but don't want to. They mop our floors. They put together cars. They die for us. »12/26/11 3:00pm 12/26/11 3:00pm

A tiny version of iRobot's Packbot reconnaissance machine, the Ember, was made to scout hostile environments in swarms, compiling feedback from multiple machines instead of risking a single, bigger robot for the mission. »5/19/09 3:00pm 5/19/09 3:00pm

While many of us may ooh and ahh at the new iPhone apps reaching the consumer level, a pair from the University of South Florida has coded a native iPhone application that can operate iRobot's Packbot with full streaming POV video. Syncing with the Packbot over Wi-Fi, the iPhone's accelerometers allow panning and… »6/20/08 12:53pm 6/20/08 12:53pm

Noah Shachtman over at Wired has a very interesting look at iRobot's six year battle with Robotic FX, a company started by a former employee who allegedly (and probably) stole schematics and plans in order to build a competitor. There's too much detail to work into a short summary, but Jameel Ahed, the former… »4/28/08 5:00pm 4/28/08 5:00pm

David Bruemmer and Douglas Few, engineers at the US Department of Energy's Idaho National Lab in Idaho Falls, have put together an unlikely use for the Wiimote—they've hacked the remote so it can control a bomb-disposing, landmine-detecting, machine gun-carrying robot. »3/29/08 8:30pm 3/29/08 8:30pm

Very few people know more about the practical robotics industry more than iRobot CEO Colin Angle. We had a nice chat with him (he did all the talking) earlier today about the state of the robotics industry, why iRobot is essentially the only company doing what they're doing in the field, what kind of robots are coming… »1/08/08 5:30pm 1/08/08 5:30pm

The folks at iRobot (yeah, the same guys that make the Roomba) are ready to send their new PackBot 510 out to battle. The PackBot is a bomb-disposing robot used out in the field where it's too dangerous for soldiers to maneuver. The new PackBot 510 is 30% faster and stronger than its predecessor. It's also easier to… »2/07/07 11:25am 2/07/07 11:25am